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Thursday, January 21, 2010

CANADIAN POLITICS:

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS:

Here are the latest updates from the Olympic Resistance Network, beginning with an appeal for the things they are going to need soon at the upcoming Anti-2010 Convergence. Help them out if you can, especially if you live on the west coast.

The Olympics Resistance Network (http://olympicresistance.net/) is seeking support and supplies! In addition to building ongoing educational and resistance efforts, the Olympics Resistance Network is hosting and coordinating logistics for an anti-2010 convergence, between Feb 10th-15th 2010. You can help by providing:

2. VOLUNTEER to make the Convergence happen! We need everyone who is able to please take on shifts to staff the Welcoming Centre, help prepare food, provide childcare, and more. Please contact 604-723-1206 with your name, when you are available, what you are willing to do, and your contact information.

3. SUPPLIES DROP OFF/STORAGE:If your local business, community centre, work place, home, or union hall is willing to either accept or store any of the supplies listed below, please let us know. We are in desperate need for drop-off and storage space especially for our medic supplies.

4. SAFE SPACES: There will be many people from out of town arriving in Vancouver for the anti-Olympic convergence and we are looking for allies who are willing to be listed in our Welcoming Package as safe spaces. These will not be places for anti-Olympic organizing, just a place to stop by and hang out. If your business, community centre, or other physical space is willing to explore the idea of being listed as a space sympathetic to the Anti-Olympic Convergence please let us know and we are happy to work with you in a way that most suits you.

9. TRANSPORTATION: Contact us if you have a car or bike trailer and are willing to transport supplies during the anti-olympics convergence. We also need Bicycle donations - used, working and those needing minor repairs.

4. For pick-up in the Downtown Eastside, East Vancouver or Burnaby, call: 604-773-9057. Or contact us at: 604-723-1206

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-- please forward to contacts in BC and US West Coast

- Why Oppose the 2010 Olympic Games

As part of a provincial and west coast speaking tour, join us in a series of events to learn more about the Olympic industry and its impacts, why opposition to the Games is growing, and how you can participate in and support the resistance. We will also hear about plans for a global Feb 10-15 anti-colonial and anti-capitalist convergence against the Games.

Anyone posing even a potential threat to Olympic Security is being subjected to police “friendly visits” and blatant harassment, from active organizers and their families to people who attend events or write critical letters. These visits have escalated and are likely to continue escalating as we near the February games.

Some have faced the sharper swords of prosecution, imprisonment, deportation, and even death in the case of Harriet Nahanee. We see the clear connection between Olympic repression and ongoing police intimidation & brutality, the mounting deaths in police custody, the gross negligence in missing women cases, the social cleansing in the Downtown Eastside, and all the other symptoms of this unjust system.

We call for a mass public outcry and for increased resistance amidst this climate of increasing social control. To show we do not fear their tactics when we rise together. Tell your friends and family, co-workers and classmates. Let's show that our solidarity can be stronger than their repression.

Intentions:

We are planning on this march being a family friendly demonstration of our solidarity against police repression. We intend to create a festive atmosphere that is safe and inviting for a wide range of people. Our goal is to spread information and to strengthen our will to band together and support each other in the face of ongoing police repression.

We ask that people not attempt to provoke the cops. This said, we are not responsible nor can we control attempts by authorities to suppress our solidarity, and therefore, we stress the importance of supporting those who choose to defend themselves and others against police abuse. We invite everyone to bring their friends and family, as well as banners, chants, noise makers, flags, torches and, most importantly, lots of energy!

Let’s bring the celebration of our resistance into the streets!

If you have any questions, please leave us a comment and we will respond ASAP. If you do not wish to make your comment public, please let us know and we will act accordingly. http://january22nd.wordpress.com/

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver & Whistler, on unceded Indigenous land, from February 12-28 2010. We call on all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents. We are organizing towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the2010 Olympic Games.

* BASIC SCHEDULE:

The Convergence is called for Feb 10-15:

- Wed Feb 10- Thurs Feb 11: Conference and People's Summit

- Fri Feb 12: Take Back Our City! “Welcome” the 2010 Olympic Torch with Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food! Beginning with a festival at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 pm, followed by a parade and protest to BC Place Stadium. Details, including childcare, at:

- Saturday, Feb 20. Rally for a National Housing Program from noon-2 pm, north Side of Vancouver Art Gallery. The UN now calls Canada's housing crisis, 'a national emergency.' Come join this rally to pressure the federal government to once again re-establish a national housing program in Canada. Organized by Impact on Communities Coalition.

* LOGISTICAL INFORMATION:

We are working to coordinate the logistics to host this convergence. For information on billeting (whether you are in need of billeting or can provide billeting), travel and border information, legal updates, food and childcare arrangements, community spaces, welcome package, and more, please check http://olympicresistance.net/ frequently for updates.

2) If you are part of another group (artist, activist, community, union, campus etc) and are planning any kind of activity or event to oppose the Games during Feb 2010, please do let us know and stay in touch.

3) Host an anti-Olympic educational on your campus or at your next conference. Or invite a speaker to your next meeting to discuss what your group can do. We are able to provide educational materials including films, tshirts, comics, buttons, stickers and more!

4) Get involved in the Olympic Resistance Network or other anti-Olympic groups in your neighbourhood or campus. The ORN has regular General Meetings on Sundays as well as many committees.

5) Spread the word about the convergence! Forward this notice to your contacts, download posters and flyers about the convergence from our website and pass them on!

or cheques can be made out to Olympic Resistance Network and mailed to ORN, 6 - 1857 Kitchener St, Vancouver, BC, V5L 2W5. Email ornfundraise@riseup.net to arrange direct deposits or other queries.

* WHY OPPOSE THE GAMES:

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place on unceded Indigenous land. Far from being simply about sport, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, and repression. As Olympic promoters and sponsors seek to present their sanitized corporate brand image to the world, the real impacts of the Games are apparent to everyone:

* Expansion of sport tourism on Indigenous lands

* Increasing homelessness across the province and especially in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

* Misdirected public spending and debt totaling $6 billion while funding for the arts, education, and health care are suffering cutbacks

* Corporate bailouts and profits for companies with some of the worst social and environmental records.

* Threats to basic civil liberties and free speech

* Union-busting and vulnerable working conditions for migrant labour

*Unprecedented destruction of the environment

* Unparalleled $1 billion police and security spending that is turning our city into a militarized zone.

The ORN supports the international resolution passed by over 1500 Indigenous delegates at the Intercontinental Indigenous Peoples Gathering in Sonora, Mexico to “ boycott the 2010 Olympic Games” based on Resolution #2 of the Gathering which states “We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada”.

Based on this call, our organizing as natives and non-natives alike is largely being done under the slogan of "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land".